The present invention relates generally to rotary drives or actuators for swinging or rotating relatively heavy hinged objects such as security gates and, more specifically, to such a drive that converts a continuous rotary force into an oscillatory rotary force.
Right angle drives are used to transmit a rotary force from a first rotating member to a second rotating member disposed at a right angle to the first member. Right angle drives may include worm gears or crown gears. Such drives are commonly used in combination with reduction gearing in aircraft landing gear actuators and similar actuators.
It is desirable to reverse an actuator, such as an aircraft landing gear, that includes a right angle drive. To reverse such an actuator, either the motor that generates the rotary force must be reversed or the actuator must be provided with complex gearing.
Certain conventional right angle drives transmit force applied to the first rotating member to the second rotating member equally as efficiently as they transmit force from the second rotating member to with the first rotating member. In an actuator such as those used on landing gear, however, it is desirable to prevent landing forces experienced by the landing gear wheels from rotating the drive and motor and thereby collapsing the landing gear.
These problems and deficiencies are clearly felt in the art and are solved by the present invention in the manner described below.